Message: meth in wasilla
Paper: Anchorage Daily News (AK)
Title: Drug officials find fewer labs but more
meth - SHIPMENTS: An 11-pound seizure shows Outside supply targeting the local demand.
Author: GEORGE BRYSON
Anchorage
Daily News
Staff
Date: February 21, 2007
Section: Main
Page: A1
The rapid growth of "mom-and-pop" methamphetamine
labs in the Mat-Su Valley may be leveling off -- or even falling -- but the prevalence of the drug in Alaska isn't, according
to a panel of experts who addressed the subject this week at the University of Alaska Anchorage.After the seizure of 62 meth
labs in Alaska in 2004, only 45 were discovered in 2005, federal Drug Enforcement Agency officer Harvey Goehring told forum
participants Monday at the UAA Book Store.
At the same time, however, the sheer amount of meth seized by Alaska
law officials statewide more than tripled -- from 646 grams in 2004 to 2,292 grams in 2005 -- which suggests that Alaska meth
users may now be tapping "super-lab" sources Outside.
Supporting evidence virtually poured in three months ago
when DEA agents in Anchorage seized a FedEx package from California containing 11 pounds of meth -- about 100,000 hits worth
-- with a street value that law enforcement officials estimated as high as $1 million.
Goehring and others at
the forum pointed to anecdotal evidence that meth is reaching village youths in the Bush, where the drug is perceived as easier
to buy and longer-lasting than cocaine.
That's because it quickly enters the brain and can remain in the blood
system for days, Cathy Baldwin-Johnson, a family practitioner with Providence Matanuska Health Care in Wasilla, told the forum.
Unfortunately, even small doses can cause permanent brain damage.
The chemicals used in making meth -- which
can include ephedrine and pseudoephedrine from cold medicines, paint thinner, red phosphorus from matchbooks, drain cleaner
and battery acid -- can literally burn through flesh.
Baldwin-Johnson showed the audience slide photos of users
with advanced cases of "meth mouth," in which virtually all their teeth had rotted away, and one woman with severe blisters
on her forearms where the drug had eroded her blood vessels from the inside out.
When there's a meth lab in a
home, the danger increases, since chemicals in the air can easily infect everyone in a family, including small children, said
Baldwin-Johnson, who in 2002 received a national honor as "family practitioner of the year."
According to DEA
statistics, between a third and a half of the meth labs in Alaska have children in the home at the time of a drug bust. And
up to 80 percent of the kids who've been tested within two hours check positive for meth in their urine.
Another
growing concern is the environmental contamination that can linger in a meth home, or meth-waste dump hidden outside, after
the users have come and gone.
"Meth labs have been found almost anyplace you can think of," Baldwin-Johnson said.
"Out in the Valley -- which unfortunately has gained the reputation of being 'The Meth Capital of Alaska' -- we've had meth
labs dumped in public parks. We've had them discovered in hotels and motels. We had a guy who created a meth lab in a Ford
van that he buried in his back yard."
Goehring showed PowerPoint photos of a tent-lab that was discovered in
Centennial Park in northeast Anchorage, as well as another meth lab in Anchorage on fire -- which is often how they're discovered.
The cost of cleaning up meth labs in Alaska has cost the DEA $750,000 since 2002, according to the agency's records.
But new renters shouldn't assume that a former meth lab is clean -- they should demand to see the documentation,
said former Anchorage state senator Gretchen Guess, who sponsored two meth bills that were passed into law.
The
first, adopted four years ago, requires landlords to fully clean meth contamination from their properties -- up to state standards
-- before they allow them to be occupied again. The state Department of Environmental Conservation maintains a list of such
properties on its Web site, Guess said.
The second, which became law last June, limits the amount of non-prescription
cold medicines that contain ephedrine and pseudoephedrine that can be purchased over the counter and requires retailers to
maintain a logbook. It also increases sentences on people convicted of operating meth labs with children present.
Daily News reporter George Bryson can be reached at
gbryson@adn.com.
METH LABS: To find out if there used to be a meth lab where you live, go to
adn.com/crime
Author: GEORGE BRYSON
Anchorage Daily News
Staff
Section: Main
Page: A1
Copyright (c) 2007, Anchorage
Daily News
